Electronic documents (EDs) are commonly used for storing and disseminating information. This information may include sensitive data items such as, for example, social security numbers, credit card information, income information, etc. EDs may be defined using a document markup language to provide features such as complex formatting, document comments, tracking of changes, etc. The document markup language may include multiple instances of the sensitive data items.
In cases where an intended recipient of the ED is not authorized to access (e.g., view) the sensitive data items, it may be necessary to remove the sensitive data items from the ED. However, removing the displayed instances of a sensitive data item from the ED might not remove all instances of the sensitive data item found within the markup of the ED. An unauthorized user might still be able to view the sensitive data items by accessing the markup of the document. Accordingly, removal of all instances of the sensitive data items from the ED is desirable.